It’s hard to compete with the Florida Strawberry Festival for attention, but Chris Welbon and members his karate club were hard to miss last Saturday.
They gathered outside of Welbon’s Collins Street storefront early in the afternoon and hosted a “yard sale” to raise money for the club team’s impending travel expenses. With an extra $1,100, Welbon and his team are ready to do what they usually do: Compete to win.
“We’ve had a phenomenal group of students that have come through,” Welbon says. “Just about all of my black belts have won first in state and divisional competitions, went to a national tourney and won top three in the nation, something like that. I’m really blessed.”
The club now is preparing for the first of its five or so competitions — an AAU travel competition in Palm Beach. Its constant success throughout its seven years in Plant City is partly the result of the students’ hard work, and partly the result of Welbon doing something he loves every day.
IN THE BEGINNING
Welbon, a Brandon native, was first introduced to karate at 8 years old — but not necessarily because he found it on its own.
“My mom actually got me into it, as an extracurricular activity to teach me some discipline,” he says.
It didn’t take long before he fell in love with karate. As his skills developed, so did his karate IQ; and, as his IQ developed, so did his desire to help share the knowledge. At 16, he began teaching part-time with master Mark Pinner, currently based in Tampa, while also staying busy with competitions.
When Welbon graduated and went to college, he began to ramp up his teaching efforts — the extra free time he now had made it easier to juggle instructing with his competing and studying. During this time, he was also a member of the U.S. Karate Team and won a silver and a bronze medal at a world championship tournament in Orlando.
His turning point came at age 23, when he married his wife and had children.
“That was a lot on my plate, so I started competing less,” Welbon says. “I also put a greater focus on teaching, and that’s when I started at the college.”
KINDLING THE FIRE
Welbon’s venture into teaching initially began with a small class at South Florida Baptist Hospital and eventually jumped to Hope Lutheran Church. It was the perfect venue for Welbon’s program, which incorporates Christian faith and teachings.
“That was back when (Hope Lutheran) had a school, and the program really took off there,” Welbon says. “The student base was very good, and it was a good fit.”
At that point, he decided to stay in the Winter Strawberry Capital of the World to continue teaching. But, he won’t say that he chose Plant City.
“I’d say Plant City picked me,” he says.
He moved his classes to Hillsborough Community College after Hope Lutheran and remained there until 2007. That was when he decided it was finally time to go big and open his own shop. The club on Collins has been going strong ever since.
And, it also gave Welbon a more traditional environment to practice his craft.
“We’re very much a traditional school, in that we don’t do gymnastics, cartwheels, any extra stuff like that,” he says. “But, we teach in a modern way, with modern training activities — plyometrics, high-energy activities. Our competition team focuses on conditioning and taking our training to the next level.”
Indeed. Although the younger kids have fun at times with dodgeball and foam-sword fights, Welbon doesn’t play around with his older students. His goal is to get maximum effort from every student to get the best possible results.
“These competitions are qualifiers,” Welbon says. “Not just anybody off the street can show up and do them. You actually have to be pretty good.”
His students are definitely “pretty good.” Take Plant City High School senior Nick Gorman, for example. Back in January, Gorman traveled to Munich, Germany, to represent the U.S. in an international competition, where he took second place in kumite and third in sparring.
“I’m looking for some more national champs this year,” Welbon says. “Several of my kids are going to compete in the advanced division for the first time this year, so I’m preparing them for team trials.”
FOR THE REST OF US
“I want to see students grow and reach their goals,” Welbon says. “Whether it’s adults who want to lose weight or kids whose parents want them to learn discipline, and anyone who just wants to become a better person overall.”
Welbon, his staff of four full-time instructors and a revolving cast of student volunteers run normal operations from Monday to Thursday and save their most intense competition training day for Friday. On Saturdays, they sometimes host fundraisers. Last year, the club raised almost $10,000 between its sponsors, fundraisers and donations. The club also hosts birthday parties for kids.
“We try to make it a family atmosphere, but we also train really hard,” Welbon says. “We don’t want to be just another ‘McDojo.’”
Contact Justin Kline at jkline@plantcityobserver.com.
ABOUT THE CLUB
Normal operations are from 5 to 9 p.m., Mondays through Thursdays, but the club does hold private lessons earlier in the day. Homeschool classes and tournament training are held Fridays.
The club also knows how to have fun, hosting birthday parties on Saturdays.
“The kid gets to be black belt for the day, and they cut the cake with a samurai sword,” Welbon says.
Every summer, the club also holds a summer camp for kids to learn more about karate, play outside and have fun.
For more information, contact Chris Welbon at (813) 752-9800, or visit chriswelbonkarate.com.